"Welcome back to the NBA. It's different."
Utah exploited Blazers sluggishness, defensive changes
Before we get to the results of Wednesday’s season opener, it has to be stated again just how different it is to be at an NBA game these days. For the players, it is as bizarre as those of us let into the game, perhaps more so. The cavernous arena with piped-in crowd noise based on the result somehow put us in a real-life version of NBA 2K, with the cardboard fans giving off a 2K2 vibe more than a 2K21. Perhaps this, all of this, was just too weird for a Blazers team adding two new starters to the fold. It was not only the atmosphere but the play on both ends that felt like it was still in the stages of “working hard but still getting to know each other.”
Portland jumped out to a 13-6 lead but the good feelings, whatever could be said about feelings in this game, ended rather quickly. The Jazz looked like a team that was used to getting each other going and while Portland did have moments where the guards fought harder over screens than in years past, the intention on either end just didn’t seem forceful enough. There were also times wherein service of playing to personnel, aka the Kanter minutes, where the drop coverage played right into Utah’s hands.
Terry Stotts said after the game that many of the Jazz 3-pointers were off the dribble, which is true. But these were not Damian Lillard pull up with two guys on you off the dribble. Many of them, including a Joe Ingles screen and roll seared into my mind from the first half, looked like practice shots you could get working out before the game. Yes, the Jazz are good and they moved the ball well, but some of the shots the Jazz hit weren’t just the product of good ball movement.
Part of Portland’s struggle in the early season when it comes to trapping more in pick and rolls and trusting the backside recovery is that there will be plenty of times that good ball movement will beat the defense. But as it has always been for this Blazers team, no matter the scheme, it’s not a question of whether they CAN play good defense, it’s whether they’re disciplined enough and trust each other enough to do it all the time.
This season is going to be very different no matter what, which was one of Carmelo Anthony’s most salient points after the game. He made it in passing but with the feeling in the building being so empty rather than one large pumping heart, you could feel the lack of vibes. Perhaps nobody on the Blazers is more in tune with the vibes than Melo and his comments that the Blazers were a “step slow” adds a little bit of context to why he looked to be forcing it during Portland’s awful second quarter. Melo, like the rest of the Blazers, would do well to trust the guy next to them or open at the top of the key, to do their job. In the case of Damian Lillard, he needed to trust in himself a little bit more, which was something he admitted to postgame.
But one issue for Portland that must be addressed is Jusuf Nurkic, whose forgettable preseason bled into absolute domination at the hands of Rudy Gobert for 20 points, 17 rebounds and a host of solid plays out of Portland’s traps. Nurkic lost Gobert plenty of times but part of Gobert’s night was also a reflection that Portland’s 5-man defense just didn’t do enough, nor did their offense, to match a high-powered attack.
This is a long season and for most of the guys on this Blazers team, they aren’t losing their cool after one game. Nurk is still clearly getting back to the rhythm of things. But the urgency has to be there in more than just words. They’re working on their shortcomings and I can trust that they are, but the Western Conference and the NBA wait for nobody. The one thing that bodes well for the Blazers is that by all accounts, they know they need to improve on their Game 1 struggles sooner rather than later.
In Game 1, different meant worse. Portland is hoping to right the ship defensively, not only in the regular season but in the postseason when the chips are down. Different, they are betting, will turn to growth. Wednesday was a reminder that it will hurt sometimes, but if Portland wants to reach their goals of being a top-seed and a factor in the West, they have to make sure it doesn’t hurt for too much longer.
Rebounding
I don’t have any kids but when it comes to rebounding I’m basically a Dad. The way Portland got beat on the glass tonight was insane and made me a little happy to see the folks who blamed literally every defensive problem on Hassan Whiteside look a little stupid. Whiteside was not a problem solver because the problems he had to solve were much bigger than him. He came up in a culture where everybody on the team has to play defense and the Blazers last year definitely did not do that.
Listen, it’s easy to jump on the Nurk slander train because he has struggled. But tonight’s rebounding effort, was again, bigger than the center position. Defensive rebounding, as it is the final act of completing a defensive possession, is a five-man job the way defense is. Jordan Clarkson had seven rebounds tonight! What the fuck? Until Portland is able to get on the same page that everybody has to rebound, they’ll continue to get their asses kicked on the glass as a team again.
The Bench
Melo was shitty in the first half. Kanter was too. It was a pretty terrible outing for the bench and while CJ McCollum can do a decent job at back-up point guard, being without Anfernee Simons gave us yet another opportunity to stare at this gaping hole in the Blazers roster. How this team doesn’t have a back-up point guard of any ilk other than Simons is a joke.
McCollum can surely run point guard but he’s a scorer at heart. Asking him to sheepishly run the offense just helps nobody and let’s be honest: Simons isn’t really a point guard either. Neil Olshey is the King at managing upwards and he’s clearly got a strong connection with Jody Allen. But Allen’s resistance to the luxury tax is honestly a little short-sighted.
The Blazers are a valuable team because they are an NBA team but also because they have one of the few truly passionate markets in the league. Skimping on a real need only to save pennies, in a season where the NBA will lower the luxury-tax percentage based on league revenue, which is sure to go down in a pandemic, is negligence and also a disservice. You run a sports team, not a hedge fund. Maybe Simons comes back and the investment pays off. But it sure would be nice to have some kind of insurance policy.